STUDENTS watching teacher Russell Viers (right) are Sam Norris (upper left); Heather Honeywell & Kathy Vaughn (above; Courtney Carr (lower left); Rob Minervini & Sandie Stephens (lower right).

Workshops Sharpen Design Skills, Offer 'Freebies'

Newspaper publishers and staffers from many Idaho cities and two neighboring states praised both the content and presentation of the Graphic Design Skills Workshops in Lewiston and Boise on successive days June 3 and 4. The sessions were offered as a benefit for their participation in the Icann statewide display and classified advertising networks. INA hosted the training sessions and added a free Continental breakfast and buffet social lunch for attendees at the Red Lion Lewiston Inn and the Red Lion Downtowner in Boise.

Presenter Russell Viers taught his lessons on his portable computer, projected to a 4x8 foot theatre screen. He showed the new tools and workflow-speeding features of the Adobe Creative Suite of programs that include In-Design, Photoshop, Illustrator and Version Cue. He used humour and showmanship to keep the day's pace lively. Upon a successful student's answer to his questions, he tossed out a small bag of M&M candies as a reward. He closed each of the sessions with a drawing that won a T-shirt emblazoned "DEADLINES SUCK!" for the winner, then handed out boxed sets of his copyrighted board game "Gazette" at the workshop door. During the noon lunch, hosted in Lewiston by the Tribune publisher A.L. Alford Jr. and in Boise by the Icann advertising network, Bob C. Hall gave each attendee bound copies of the advertising workbook "How To Create Ads That JUMP".

All post-session comments by the workshop students contained special praise for the teaching style of nationally-known software expert Russell Viers. Using an InFocus multimedia projector provided by the INA office. Staff members appraisal included the following comments sent to INA after the sessions:

Debbie Gillie, prepress supervisor at the Lewiston Morning Tribune, wrote: "The seminar ... was wonderful, It is always scary going into new programs, being as busy as we have been, but after seeing this demonstration of how In-Design, Photoshop and Illustrator works it is going to be just awesome after we get our training and get up to speed. This was by far the best seminar I have ever been to."

Heather Honeywell, advertising designer at the Baker City Herald (OR) said: "We both really enjoyed the speaker, Russell Viers, and came away with some valuable information that we are both trying out. The day went by so fast and was not boring like some seminars. We would attend again. We really appreciate the invitation from INA to come to the session, since we're five hours from our own press association and related training. "

Sam Norris, senior MacIntosh Operator/Trainer at The Idaho Statesman, wrote: "We found this to be one of the most informative, as well as enjoyable workshops we have attended."

Kent Schmidt, prepress technician at the Twin Falls Times-News wrote: "I wish that our staffing was such that I could have attended along with 2-3 others, but Brian was the best choice for us to send at this time. Brian says that he is very excited about In-Design (as a lot of us are), and has met with me and talked about the workshop. Please let us know when you do this again."

Jefferson Star publisher Ken Carr's daughter, Courtney, a graphics design student at Boise State University, attended and Carr reported: "She sent me seven pages of notes on the workshop ... she said that she liked the speaker, who was very well informed. He knew the program inside and out and made it easy to understand for those not familiar with the In-Design program. She also said that he was good about answering questions and was able to clarify the answers and made a strong case for the In-Design program."

"You must have designed the program especially for us...that was exactly what we hoped to learn", said Tomi Grote, co-publisher of the Star News (McCall).

Newspapers represented in Boise were The Idaho Statesman (Boise), Idaho Press-Tribune (Nampa), the Idaho Business Review (Boise), the Argus-Observer (Ontario,OR) and Baker City Herald (OR), the Payette Independent-Enterprise, the Star-News (McCall), the Adams County Record (Council) and the Challis Messenger.

In Lewiston, newspapers represented were the Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), St. Maries Gazette-Record, Latah Eagle, Daily News (Moscow), Lewiston Morning Tribune, and the Waitsburg Times (WA). Also present were graphic arts instructors from Lewis/Clark College and Lewiston ad agencies.